A Laboured Past
by PygmypuffNargles
Summary: 17 years on from the Great Wizarding War, Teddy is training for Care of Magical Creature for his N.E.W.T.S, but as he is working in the Forbidden Forest, will his discovery change his future forever, by using his past?
1. Chapter 1: Something Found

**A/N I have been meaning to write this story, and I'm sure i'll enjoy writing it so I do hope you enjoy reading it! Please tell me what you think in the reviews whether to pursue this story line!:)**

**Chapter 1**

**Something Found**

The Forbidden Forest was just as ominous as I had been told, the silhouette of the castle looming in the distance, I turn around to face the dark boundary of trees marking the entrance. The black edge of the forest slightly parted to make a clear pathway leading into the darkness.

'Just this way 'ere eh Teddy' Boomed Hagrid as he lugged a large hem sack over his shoulder, the wiry beard and hair known all too well by those at Hogwarts has started to grey at the edges, giving him an old grandfatherly appeal. Hagrid trudges past me, the sun which marks a new day edges over the rolling mountains spreading new light into the valley makes the grass around us start to shimmer with due.

'Hagrid don't you think it's a little early? Can't this wait until maybe, not 5am? I'm not even awake yet' I followed him on the pine needle covered trail leading into the forest.

'No Teddy, you want to get the moss when it's fresh an' full of tha' dew' He turned his self towards me and walked beside me, 'That's when they're the tastiest for 'em'

'Hagird, what is the moss exactly food for?' I asked him, as we continue to follow the path deeper into the forest.

'Oh you know, Nifflers like 'em, we'll use 'em for the fourth years today for your training'

'Ahh see well that makes sense now, so just collecting food for them this right?'

'Tha's the plan' Hagrid grunted as he walked, but occasionally I swear I can hear his old joints creak. He's getting old now, must be nearly 90, I'm not entirely sure of the lifespan of a half giant, but seeming as old Dumbledore lived a lifetime and a half I have no doubts Hagrid can do the same. 'Oh 'ere you go Ted! You see this?' He bent over and creaked again, ripping a few strings of moss off of a fallen branch, 'This is the stuff you wan''

'Ah alright thanks, so, so shall I just be getting off on my own then? Just over here?' I started to jokingly edge away from Hagrid, pointing and jesting as I walked off in the opposite direction,

'Sure thing, be carefu' tho' you don't know what's out there still alright, you may be almost eigh'een but stay close alrigh'' I can sense the edge of physical fatherly concern in his voice.

'Sure thing Hagrid! I'll be fine!' I call back to him as I continue to walk, and he nods his head in approval.

The light from the new dawn beams through the trees, once dark and gloomy the forest floor now twinkles with the morning dew as Hagrid has said, and scattered around lays patches of moss.

I start to collect some, shoving it in a smaller bag Hagrid handed me earlier, the dampness of the ground seeps through my jeans.

The whole ground is covered in tiny drops of water, glinting in the morning light, but as I lean down to grab the next handful, I notice a sharp point glimmering, nestled in the moss.

Reaching down I rip up that patch and shove it in the bag, but as I pull my hand out, something small, and solid scrapes across my hand before falling into the sack as well. 'Probably a rock or something' I tell myself as I continue to gather.

After a while the sun is now peaking just at the top of the trees of the forest, as I estimate it must be about 7am, so most students should be waking by now. Just as I think about returning to Hagrid I hear is bellowing voice through the trees. 'Teddy, Teddy! You gotta come back now' In his thick accent.

'Yeah I hear you!' I call back, as I see his rounded shadow at the edge of the forest.

xxxx

Now back in Hagrid's hut, he's instructed me to separate the moss into smaller portions for the Nifflers who eagerly await their morning meal in large cages hanging in the corner of his hut.

I stand at an old well worn wooden table, with two hem sacks, moist from the due captured in the moss inside. Shoving my hand into Hagrid's larger sack I pull out a larger handful of moss and start to separate it, poking it through the bars of the cages as the first Niffler snuffles it away with his long nose and leathery but soft hairy skin.

I continue to individually feed each Niffler, admiring their playful characters as I work, then Hagird enters the hut and fiddles with his shelves of various teacups and crockery beside a large cooking pot. 'You getting along well there Teddy?'

'Yeah fine thanks, funny things aren't they?' Referring to the creatures next to me.

'Yeah you could say tha', 'course you'll meet a lot weirder with your trainin', you looking forward to that then?'

'Of course I am! Ever since I was younger I always told Harry that I wanted to work with magical creatures, you know, because they are so interesting' I continue to prepare some more moss.

'Oh yeah of course you and Harry are real close aren't ya? Oh 'arry I remember when he wa' your age, 'course then he wasn't exactly in education was he? Nah you got told all about that from 'im not long ago I guess, how'd you take that anyway?'

Hagrid sort of mumbles to himself sometimes, and the fact I get distracted too easily doesn't help that I am rarely able to piece together what he's said – but his mention of Harry's past catches my attention. I look up.

'Hagrid? How'd you know about that, like when we're told – I thought it was only the Weasley's tradition you know'

'OH Teddy! You think I don't know about all that? Me and the Weasleys have been close for a long time now, you know tha'!'

'Oh of course yes silly me' I sigh lightly to myself, 'Yeah we're only told about that gory part of the past when we're just seventeen, I mean of course I knew' my voice catches at the thought of my parent's memory. 'About my parents, that they'd died for a great cause, yeah I know'

What followed was a silence only the quiet sniffles from the Nifflers could fill, occasionally some whined for more food but Hagrid said nothing for a long while.

He continued to busy himself with tidying things up around his hut, until he picked up a large bag of various books and object and walked out the door leaving me alone to finish my job.

His abrupt departure was what I could only think was caused by the mention of the past; I think about it a lot, how experiencing something like the Great War must change a person. How he could live through that, losing so many people dear to him I do not know, sometimes I barely hold it together with my longing to know my parents.

Often before I've discussed this feeling with Harry, My God Father, which of course he is familiar with, but that has never really minimised the growing bubble emptiness that on some days feels like it wants to explode inside of me.

My hands work busily tearing moss, I just finish Hagrid's large bag and move onto my own smaller bag.

What seems like a long time passes until there are just a few bunches left in the bottom, I stretch my hand out to fetch more, when the familiar scratch of the hard rock brushes across my hand.

Bringing the clump of moss out onto the worktable, I separate the moss, my hands grubby and muddy from working, part and rip strands until sitting in a shaggy ring on the old wooden table, sits a small shining angular stone, glinting in the sunlight seeping through the old window.

** A/N I hope you enjoyed it, and if you are interested in what shall happen next, please click the follow button below! And if you really like it the favourite button is there too!**

**Do tell me what you thought in the reviews, whether to continue this story as well please :) I look forward to continuing this with you next chapter up soon!**


	2. Chapter 2: Memories

**A/N Hello, sorry I didn't update in a while, but here's chapter 2! :D If you have any questions concerning Teddy's house, he was never sorted in the books/Pottermore secrets but i felt he would be a Slytherin from his heritage and attributes, but remember you can be a Slytherin and have a kind heart! Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 2**

**Memories**

Slumping into the large Green armchairs in the Slytherin Common room, I let out a deep sigh, after a long day of training to teach the Fourth Year class of Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid.

As I start to press myself into the comforting fabric, I admire the burning fire to my left, crackling and spitting inside the large dungeon mantelpiece, when a sharp pain digs into my back pocket.

Ah yes, I forgot about the weird stone I found in the moss – tugging it out of my pocket, still covered in various dirt and mud I rub it in my fingers.

The whole common room Is empty, everyone is probably asleep upstairs, so I'm completely alone here. Suddenly an eruption of sounds at the window tells me a strong storm is brewing as every raindrop hits the glass to make it rattle violently.

Cracks of lightening illuminate part of the room, light beaming through the windows onto where I sit.

I become alert, feeling uncomfortable from being alone in the darkened room I try to concentrate on the stone in my hands.

As I rub all the mud off, I try to think what it is. Jewellery perhaps? Maybe it's a precious rock I've never heard of before?

I sit for a while, pondering on the origin of this finely and accurately formed, mysterious stone.

I debate giving it in, someone may have possibly lost it – although I can't even think who would have just so dropped it in the Forbidden Forest like that, the only things that live out there are – are Giants and Centaurs and other monsters, of which I would really not like to tussle with.

I stand up plopping the stone back into my pocket, as any memories or knowledge leading to the stone's origin evades me.

I aimlessly stroll around the room, past the two large sofas and green tapestries in front of me near the wall, I head towards the desks in the back of the room just below the windows.

The storm still blows strong outside, the windows withstanding the aggressive streams of rain and wind, I find it calming, so sit on one of the old wooden chairs at a desk.

I put the stone on the desk in front of me, lowering my body so I am at eye level with it, leaning on my arms I stare at it, determined to find out, or remember what it is, or what do to with it.

Then I remember.

xxxx

'Here you go Teddy' I remember Harry telling me as he tucked me in one night, as the babysat me from Andromeda as he always did.

Harry pulled up a chair beside my bed and pulled out an old and warn, small blue book.

'Fancy a story tonight? What one?' The rims of Harry's glasses reflected the yellow light of his wand, stuck upright casting Lumos as a nightlight in his pocket.

'I don't mind' A sleepy six year old me said to my Godfather.

'Alright then' He croaked in a husky voice, 'How about the, the Hopping Pot one?'

'Actually no no, I do, I want the, the three brothers, yeah three brothers!' I started to get a little excited as I spoke through the true tiredness.

'Really Teddy, are you sure-' He seemed a little apprehensive to tell the tale.

'Oh please' I pleaded.

He let out a long sigh and opened the page of the start of the story, and lay his other hand on the edge of my bed, and I held his hand, sleepily drowsing off as he began to tell the tale.

'There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across-' Harry's voice faded, and the Lumos dimmed, and the edges of my mind blurred as I came back to reality, my face pressed into my numb arms and the desk, as I drifted from the fond memory.

That's it. The Three Brothers. I recalled the rest of the memory and the faint imprinted information on my six year old mind, and recognised the Deathly Hallows.

The Elder Wand.

The Cloak of invisibility.

And, and the Stone of Resurrection.

That's where it's familiar from.

But it can't be – it's not true, is it? It's not. It was just a tale! A silly wives tale! I rip my mind away from the possible thoughts which are obviously untrue.

Harry always told me they weren't real. None of it ever was.

Of course we were all told as soon as we hit 17, everyone in the extended Weasley family at least, it's a tradition – about the true Battle of Hogwarts.

That's how I truly found out how my Parents died.

I was told about the whole Battle, why it happened, it was Voldemort and his army, that's all, he wanted to control the whole Wizarding world, starting with killing Harry inside Hogwarts. That's all I understand at least, I was never really told anything about the whereabouts, or existence of the Deathly Hallows, I guess there was no need. Perhaps if they told us that this myth was true, we would believe others were too.

I drag back the intricacies of my faint memory, how apprehensive Harry was to even read the Three Brothers, that alone could have meant something, some memories or secrets he did not want to be told.

Searching through my memory, and still sitting at the table, I recall a symbol on the front cover of his old copy of the 'Tales Of Beedle The Bard', it was a triangle.. a triangle yes. And something else inside it.

I grab some paper which was haphazardly stacked with some books on the edge of the desk near the wall, and pull out a pen from my other pocket.

Moving the stone aside, I draw a triangle and try to decipher my puzzled memory. There was definitely something I'm missing inside.

This symbol must link to The Three Brothers as all other symbols scattered on the cover represent the other tales inside. So, so that must mean, this symbol is The Deathly Hallows right?

There must be a line or something... for a Wand. I try out and draw a line extending from the top of the triangle to the bottom, and the familiarity seems right now.

Then the memory comes flooding back, my eyes flick to the stone sitting beside me, as if it's waiting, reflecting the still flashing lightening beams on its sharp points, glinting in the moonlight.

The Stone, is a circle. I roughly draw a circle inside the triangle overlapping the line, or Wand, then the Deathly Hallows is complete.

The familiar symbol triggered the memory, but also a nagging feeling that there is something worth exploring here.

How can that stone make me remember a symbol supposedly and possibly connected to it, if it's not real?

I come to one conclusion. The Deathly Hallows are real.

I carefully pick up the stone again, and now it seems to glow with recognition in my hand, because I know that it is worth so much more, the power it holds, and the things it can do.

I stand up, the stone enclosed carefully in my fist, as I make my way back to sit by the flickering fire.

I speak aloud now, expressing my thoughts 'If this, this is the resurrection stone, and the Deathly Hallows are actually real-' The sudden recognition of thought hits me like a tidal wave of emotion.

'Then I can bring my Parents back?'

**A/N I hope you enjoyed it, and if you are interested in what shall happen next, please click the follow button below! And if you really like it the favourite button is there too!**

**Do tell me what you thought in the reviews, it's always nice to have feedback! Also This story now has a new cover Picture I drew!:)**


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